1. It should bark whenever a person arrives at my gate and tries to enter. Stops baking on command.

2. If the intruder tries to force into the campus or tries to enter the campus by crossing boundary wall
a.the dog barks,
b.runs to the target, and jumps on the target
c. holds and pulls his limbs or clothes (like tug of war, only tug replaced by the target). Leaves on command.

Are these what is meant by protection training?

What is the minimum age one can start training to fulfill the above objectives?

The foundation & drive building can start in early puppyhood with tug games & motivational obedience using food or a toy. Confidence building is good, though the right kind of dog is naturally self confident.

And no, not any GSD can do protection work. It requires the right combination of genetics & training. The dog has to have strong nerves, which are inherited along with sufficient drives. And, you have to work with a responsible ethical trainer.

Too many self proclaimed "protection trainers" shouldn't be in the business.

Most times what people consider protection training is actual bite work training and the control of the dog during this process. The ability to turn the dog on/off in threatening situations. Teach the dog to bark…get yourself in front of a dog doing a bark and hold, it’s quite the test of one’s bravery. It’s also mostly in regards to the sport of Schutzhund or another bite sport. So not “true” protection per say…but with the right dog, I wouldn’t test the abilities.

There was a very long thread about “will an untrained dog protect me” with a bunch of people talking about their dogs reacting in a situation like the one you described. Others, who have done the training will tell you not to put your life in the hands of a dog that hasn’t been trained or at least tested to see if it has what it takes to face down a human.

I’ll assume that if this is a pet…you’ll be teaching it to not mouth, not touch people with its mouth. This is contradictory to what you want a dog to do in a threat situation. So if eventually you expect your dog to defend you, or your campus, you’ll have to teach it that there are situations in which that other response is acceptable.

This is all also greatly influenced by the dog’s natural drives/abilities/nerves. Without seeing your dog’s disposition, seeing it react in certain situations, it’s very hard to tell what it would do.

Most times what people consider protection training is actual bite work training and the control of the dog during this process. The ability to turn the dog on/off in threatening situations. Teach the dog to bark…get yourself in front of a dog doing a bark and hold, it’s quite the test of one’s bravery. It’s also mostly in regards to the sport of Schutzhund or another bite sport. So not “true” protection per say…but with the right dog, I wouldn’t test the abilities.

There was a very long thread about “will an untrained dog protect me” with a bunch of people talking about their dogs reacting in a situation like the one you described. Others, who have done the training will tell you not to put your life in the hands of a dog that hasn’t been trained or at least tested to see if it has what it takes to face down a human.

I’ll assume that if this is a pet…you’ll be teaching it to not mouth, not touch people with its mouth. This is contradictory to what you want a dog to do in a threat situation. So if eventually you expect your dog to defend you, or your campus, you’ll have to teach it that there are situations in which that other response is acceptable.

This is all also greatly influenced by the dog’s natural drives/abilities/nerves. Without seeing your dog’s disposition, seeing it react in certain situations, it’s very hard to tell what it would do.

If I had a dollar for every time someone with an untested, untrained GSD told me "But I KNOW he'd protect me in real life if someone attacked me", I'd be typing this from my mansion.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the German Shepherd Dog Forums forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.